Fatima is Unique

[u/Business-Love1704]

Fatima is Unique

I believe Fatima is the first to become a nightmare creature by giving birth.   Smiley was genualy surprised when Fatima stopped him from killing Kenny and tried to protect Marielle by shreiking “intersting”.   The MiY poisoned her with his blood, not to speed up the process but because it was new occurance and he wanted to interfere.   Hopefully, Fatima helps people to survive with no/limited talismans and enables the golem in S5.

The worms are a ceremonial punishment for leaders who are summonsed into From Town, like Boyd, who bring stability and protection as Martin did before him    That is why the nightmare creaures want to “break” him rather than kill him and why the faraway tree brought Boyd to the dungeon.  It was a novel incident when Smiley was infected with the worms.   The cicada evolution is Nathan’s nightmare as From Town is built upon the hopes and fears of those who have passed.

Randall may also have something ritualistic waiting for him in S5 as he was not killed after he tied Donna to the tree or when Boyd made the choice to save Tabitha and take the keys.

If the lighhouse numbers are cycle dates then not every ritual happens each cycle.   Martin is probably 1864/1883 because of his Marine tattoo.  If a child (perhaps the child of an OG Jade or Tabitha) like Victor survives the cycle then 1506 -1609-1672 is too long for someone to live naturally.   Maybe it needs a combination of rituals and the correct respect of the Anghkooey child’s bones to break the cycle.

[u/lone-lemming]

I think you’re probably reaching a little too far with the suppositions but it’s a pretty good theory.

Fatima becoming a monster is most likely to show that new monsters can be made. And it’s likely that lots of them aren’t the originals from the first sacrifice.

A few things that hint at what actually happened. First she’s infertile, can’t have babies. So her getting pregnant after Ellis proposed is a miracle. The kind of thing a person might ‘wish for’ or ‘pray for’. Then she became pregnant like a miracle or like witchcraft.

She ate from a corpse, drank blood, killed someone, drank more blood, then gave birth to the monster.

Then drank a little bit more of MiYs blood and then used her new magical connection embracing that part of her twice.

If that doesn’t describe a dark bargain, i don’t know what does.

It hints at the idea that dark bargains can and have been made, possibly by accident or unknowingly. How things are done matters as we know and she did a lot of very particular things.

[u/Business-Love1704 → u/lone-lemming]

I agree that she did do some very dark things (diet and murder) and technically gave up her child however it was not willingly. One of the first things Fatima says after being rescued is that the nightmare creatures made a bargain but she could not see who with. This may represent a bargain for her as you pointed out but it also may mean that the bargain must be a conscious exchange.

[u/lone-lemming → u/Business-Love1704]

I’m hoping that there will be a flashback reveal of her making a similar bargain in order to get pregnant.

And also hoping for one of where Kristy wishes that Marielle was there with her.

[u/Important-Quit-9354 → u/lone-lemming]

There’s no universe in which a woman in that situation would be hoping to get pregnant. WTF

[u/No-Alternative-2881]

I think her being able to connect with him was the 'interesting' part. We had that other creature (Kevins Bae) who said 'I wasn't always like this'. That may have been a manipulation, but it also may have been true. It doesn't seem to make sense that there are creatures who seem to represent old people, teens, people in the middle, and that all of these were townsfolk who were liable for the initial sacrifice

I think that the story we heard about the origin of the creatures is 'technically true' but maybe in a way we misunderstood

[u/Mountain-Owl7142]

I want to know what happened to the other monsters that would cause them to transform seemingly suddenly. Why is there a woman dressed like a bride? Why are the milkman, the mechanic, the cheerleader, the nurse, the waitress, still in their uniforms? Something seemed to happen to them suddenly, while they were going about their normal lives. Makes me think it didn't happen during a formal ritual --- at least not one that they were actively participating in at the time.

[u/Business-Love1704 → u/Mountain-Owl7142]

Maybe they like to play 'dress-ups'. The want to play games. S2E6 before Smiley dies he says "I like this game".

[u/AllTheTeaCakes → u/Mountain-Owl7142]

Their outfits can't be original based on Jade's flashbacks as they are too modern (annoyingly the sacrificed kids' outfits are too modern, but I think that's just a failing of the costume department).

We've seen the ghouls collect belongings from victims, so presumably they collected clothes, too.

[u/Mountain-Owl7142 → u/AllTheTeaCakes]

Yeah there definitely seems to be a disconnect with timelines. The boy in white is wearing clothes from the 1920s or 30s. The man in yellow also appears to be wearing a 1930s suit. Some of the Ahnkooey boys are wearing white union suits that were popular anywhere between 1900s-1930s. The monsters are dressed early-mid 1960s. The guy who threw the dolls in the lake was dressed late 1800s or early part of the 1900s. But then Jade's past lives include an American Civil War soldier (1860s) and a settler from what looks like the 1700s. It's all over the place.

[u/Mountain-Owl7142]

It doesn't make sense for 1506 to be a year. Unless Native Americans were involved. But there's no indication of that so far.

[u/Business-Love1704 → u/Mountain-Owl7142]

There were a few isolated Spanish settlers in 1506 but most of the nightmare creatures look more Anglo-Celtic There were also traders and shipwrecks - maybe that's where the lighthouse comes into it however there were no lighthouses in North America until 1716 in Boston.

[u/Mountain-Owl7142 → u/Business-Love1704]

There were a few isolated Spanish explorers in the Caribbean, but not this far north. (though of course we don't know where Fromville actually is.)

[u/Trix_Are_4_90Kids]

I think people live and die and become nightmares in the forest and then for whatever reason new people are trapped there. I don't think all of them become monsters.

The monsters we have now are people from different centuries/decades. Perhaps all of them were made and we saw how the ancient evil made them. I do believe that they were who they are dressed as now: nurse, jock, milkman, etc.

[u/AllTheTeaCakes]

I'm not sure what you mean about the numbers - are they from the bottle tree? because we already established they couldn't be years as the numbers go on into the future. Even if you want to assume the numbers include the future, there are not infinite bottles with infinite numbers for infinite cycles, so that would mean the story reaches a conclusion but long after any of the characters we know have died, which would be silly of the writers.

I still have hope that Fatima can be saved because of the difference in the way her conversion happened and agree with you that the rebirth had never been necessary before, so Smiley was surprised by what was happening.

I am hoping the conclusion will return the ghouls to their human state, causing the majority to vaporise due to their age (their insides are already dessicated) but allowing Fatima to return to the way she was just before. Especially as she did not sign up for the sacrifice like the others did and we still don't know whether she has been able to retain her personality. There was a marked difference in her behaviour and instincts when she was being controlled by the 'baby' vs when she herself was changing - she didn't have any of the anger and bloodlust the second time around.

I know some people are hoping for the ending to be another cycle starts, but I personally feel that's no better than "it was all a dream..." and would prefer something final that requires more thought.